Unsafe abortion: the silent scourge

Unsafe abortion: the silent scourge.

An estimated 19 million unsafe abortions occur worldwide each year, resulting in the deaths of about 70,000 women. Legalization of abortion is a necessary but insufficient step toward improving women's health. Without skilled providers, adequate facilities and easy access, the promise of safe, legal abortion will remain unfulfilled, as in India and Zambia. Both suction curettage and pharmacolog...

Maternal Mortality – HIV and unsafe abortion – a silent epidemic

Unsafe abortion: the preventable pandemic.

Ending the silent pandemic of unsafe abortion is an urgent public-health and human-rights imperative. As with other more visible global-health issues, this scourge threatens women throughout the developing world. Every year, about 19-20 million abortions are done by individuals without the requisite skills, or in environments below minimum medical standards, or both. Nearly all unsafe abortions...

Unsafe Abortion in Tanzania

Current abortion law is restrictive, but its legal interpretation needs to be clarified. In Tanzania, the penal code explicitly states that termination of pregnancy is legally permitted if it is performed to save a woman’s life.1 However, a recent report indicated that since Tanzania’s legal system is based on English common law, the English case of Rex v. Bourne could be applied in the interpr...

Reducing Unsafe Abortion in Nigeria

Research has consistently shown that high rates of abortion reflect high levels of unintended pregnancy, and that is certainly the case in Nigeria. Of the estimated 6.8 million pregnancies that occur annually in Nigeria, one in five are unplanned, and half of these end in an induced abortion (Figure 1, page 2). This issue brief highlights the latest scientific evidence on the causes and consequ...